Well, today we did have that day to sit on deck, relax and enjoy. We put up
the motoring awning for protection from the sun and heat. We played cards,
read, sat in the pool to get cool, took long naps and generally enjoyed
ourselves. Leo demonstrated some really impressive card tricks. Jeff
tinkers constantly with the computer programs and navigation instruments,
all to our benefit. He’s given me lessons on both the radar and weather
faxes. (One of those lessons was at 4 am, so I’m not sure I retained much.)
It’s a super opportunity for us to learn from an expert and for him to fine
tune our instruments under actual conditions. Peter V prepared shredded
beef sandwiches for lunch and reports having a long cool bath in the pool on
the back deck. I can’t report any other specifics, because I slept most of
the day, my only job being to prepare dinner

The winds are light and variable, so we are motor sailing. That means we’re
motoring, but whenever possible we put up sails to increase our speed. We
took down the poles this morning, so we can use the jibs in their normal
configuration.

The most exciting thing that happened today was the sighting of another
really big marlin. This time it was Leo who saw it swim past the boat on
its way to take a look at our lures. It gave each one a little nibble, but
didn’t bite, before going on its way. Leo’s eyes were huge as he described
its size and proximity, and he’s seen some impressive fish.

The final item of note is Herb’s birthday-71st, we think. We wished him
birthday greetings over the airways when he discussed the weather forecast
with Jake, and we’ve sent him and his wife, Brigitte, out for a birthday
dinner tonight. All the best for another happy and healthy year, Herb! For
those of you who don’t know yet who Herb is and how important he is to our
program, please check the link on the website. You can read about what Herb
does, and how he has helped yachties in trouble.

All the best from the relaxed crew of avalanche.

.

Hello from the busy yacht Avalanche!

We can hardly believe the day we’ve had. We got up to another bright, sunny, really really hot day, with a light breeze blowing. With 6 of us in the watch schedule we get 8 hours of sleep every night, plus another 6 hours off during the day to do as we please. Since we are so well rested, despite it being only our first day at sea, everyone was up and looking forward to a bath in the pool, some reading and cards as we sailed along at a respectable 8 knots. Well, that isn’t exactly how it worked out…

In the early morning we had a huge fish on. I got a look at him when he jumped way way behind the boat. (He took off so fast that Jake had only 6 wraps of line left on his reel.) He must have been easily 6′ long. The span of the tail was equal to the span of my arms, and the tail looked like that of a marlin. He shook himself free of the hook, which was a darned good thing. What would we have done with such a huge fish once we got him to the boat? Shortly thereafter we had 3 strikes on the lines (2 were probably the same fish hitting each line), but we weren’t quick enough to set the hooks, so we lost them. That is the extent of the fishing for today, so the score is now Jake 0, Peter 1, Fish 4.

During that part of the morning when we were not catching fish, we wanted to make a little water to replace what we had used. As Jake started the watermaker he discovered a growing leak. (In Antigua the same leak had been proclaimed innocent by the watermaker guru there: just expansion due to the extreme heat.) Well, apparently the rusted out part on the back of the gauge that was allowing water to flow out was not all that innocent after all.  Fortunately we have an extremely talented crew. Peter V offered advice from the helm and I fetched paper towels and parts. Meanwhile Jake, who had previously taken the gauge and panel apart, and Jeff, who is an engineer at heart, pulled the panel open,  solated the leak, and determined that they could cap off the line to the gauge and still make water. The only question was how to determine when we had 850 PSI without a gauge. Too much pressure would blow the various pressure fittings off the membranes. Well, they calibrated the turns on the leaking gauge before removing it and we proceeded to make about 125 gallons of water! Not a bad morning’s work.

The next event came immediately after a slightly delayed but no less delicious BLT lunch prepared by Pete Largess, and even before Peter Vaiciulis could get the dishes washed. Jake had been watching the wind drop and the direction go aft and was itching to try sailing wing & wing. Wing & wing means fastening both spinnaker poles to the mast and positioning them at right angles to the boat, then rolling out the 2 jibs (Whomper and Yankee) to the poles, one on each side. Now that was an all hands evolution! (Except Leo, who was off watch and slept through the first half. Some of the rest of us were also off watch, but up and about and couldn’t resist the challenge.) The first step was to locate the appropriate lines and turning blocks. Then it took all the guys to lift both poles in place and secure each one with a topping lift, foreguy, and afterguy, and run the sheet through the forward end of the pole. (If you were counting, that’s 4 lines per pole.) Then all those lines had to be run and sometimes rerun to get a fair lead. While the guys did the heavy lifting I was trimming all these lines as they came back to the cockpit. Jake and Peter V had done this all before (albeit usually under Ben Jacobsen’s tutelage), so they led the project. Pete L has done lots of foredeck work on small boats, so he knew what needed to happen, but had no idea of the loads on a boat as big as avalanche. Jeff had delivered and raced many miles so he, too was totally conversant with the requirements. It probably took a couple of hours under the hot sun to get the job done, but once done we were so proud! Once done we took photos and will try to post one near this blog.

Not long after completing the wing & wing evolution it was time to talk to Herb and get the weather report: little or no wind through Wednesday. So we rolled up the jibs, but left the poles strapped in place and turned on the engine-except that it wasn’t getting any water. Since burning up the engine or any part thereof wouldn’t be good, Jake and Leo (who had to step away from final preparations of his shrimp scampi for dinner) opened the sea strainer and impeller to create and verify water flow. They managed to get water flowing and the engine going, and Leo served up a fine dinner!

We can credit a successful day (instead of a disaster) to our fine crew, who reacted positively to the good and the bad. We really acted as a team. People who could fix stuff fixed it. People who weren’t on watch stood watch so the watch standers could make repairs. Pete L delayed his lunch until the watermaker project was under control. Dishes got washed by crew who had the day off from KP duty. The entire crew rose to the challenge of rigging a system we had little specific experience with and did a fine job. Someone kept Leo’s dinner on schedule while he crawled in the bilge. Teamwork. It was great! And afterward there was a line for the pool and shower!

So maybe tomorrow we’ll have that quiet day of reading, bathing, playing cards and telling stories!

All the best from the crew of Avalanche, most of whom didn’t get a nap today.